Special Offer With Purchase of the Book
Personal Online Advisor
Financial Engines has agreed to provide purchasers of this book with a fee waiver for a one-year term subscription to the Personal Online Advisor investment advisory service. Developed over a period of 10 years by a team of financial experts and talented software developers, the Personal Online Advisor provides investors with the ability to realistically simulate investments and receive personalized investment advice on any number of retirement and taxable investment accounts in a household portfolio. The service is very easy to use and provides a first-use experience that walks you through the required information step by step.
The Personal Online Advisor service is designed to provide investors with personalized advice and analysis. The service delivers two important pieces of information:
- A forecast of estimated retirement income based on your investment holdings and savings
- Specific actionable investment advice for your household accounts
The forecast uses Financial Engines’ sophisticated simulation methodology to provide a realistic view of the possible range of outcomes for your household portfolio, taking into consideration the specific characteristics of the actual mutual funds and stocks in your portfolio. You can establish one or more investment goals and assign different accounts to each goal. Using complex optimization techniques, the service will recommend portfolio allocations to help you best achieve investment goals. The most innovative portion of the service is its ability to interactively explore the impact of different decisions for risk, savings, time horizon, and investment goals to develop an investment strategy that has a high probability of success. By moving sliders for each decision, you can see in real time how your forecast changes and how your portfolio outcomes are affected.
To get started, go to: www.financial engines.com/intelligentportfolio and follow the directions on the screen. To access your account you will need the authorization code found on the card in the back of your copy of The Intelligent Portfolio. Once you have entered your authorization code, you will be asked to complete some personal contact information and select a user ID and password.
After you have established your account, you will be requested to provide some basic information about yourself and your investment accounts. You will have the opportunity to provide information on holdings in one or more retirement accounts, including any contributions going into the accounts. The Personal Online Advisor models a variety of taxable and tax-deferred accounts, including IRA, 401(k), 403(b), brokerage, and other account types. For each account you will need to specify the funds and stocks you hold and the value of your positions. An important feature of the Personal Online Advisor is the ability to electronically link your accounts with other financial institutions so that your account data is automatically updated when you log in. To receive advice on your accounts, you will also need to specify the investment alternatives available to you in each account. This process is simplified with a simple search tool for finding the mutual funds in your account. If you prefer, you can also specify alternatives by fund family or by popular fund supermarkets.
At the conclusion of these steps, you will be presented with a retirement forecast based on the assets you have entered. The forecast is an estimate of the range of alternatives you might experience based on your current investment strategy. The simulation will illustrate the range of possible portfolio outcomes based on your investment horizon.
The next step is setting up a retirement income goal for your household. We recommend setting up two goals—a desired level of spending in retirement, and a goal for a minimum acceptable level of spending. The Personal Online Advisor will help you construct an investment strategy that yields at least a 50 percent chance of reaching your desired goal and a 95 percent or better chance of attaining your minimum spending goal. With the specification of these goals, the service will estimate the probability of reaching your desired income goal based on your current investment strategy.
Finally, the service will take you through a series of decisions to determine how you can improve your forecast by increasing your savings, changing your risk level, improving the efficiency of your investment allocation, and perhaps changing your retirement date. The objective is to help you develop an investment strategy with a high probability of success. Once you have developed a strategy that meets your needs, you can generate an advice action kit that provides detailed instructions on how to implement the recommendations.
Upon proof of purchase and acceptance of applicable legal agreements, including the Financial Engines Advisers L.L.C. Investor Services Agreement and Terms of Service, you may access the Personal Online Advisor service, with Total Portfolio Advice without charge for one year. After your one-year subscription expires, you have the option to continue your account at the then current fee rate if you desire. Financial Engines does not receive any compensation based on the products it recommends and is an independent provider of investment advice and portfolio management services. Financial Engines does not guarantee future results. This offer is subject to change or revocation at Financial Engines’ sole discretion at any time. Offer is not valid where prohibited and is nontransferrable.
